Lord of my heart

Pillar stone, Gallarus Oratory

County Kerry, Ireland

Be thou my vision,

O Lord of my heart,

Be all else but naught to me,

Save that thou art;

Be thou my best thought

In the day and the night,

Both waking and steeping,

Thy presence my light.

Traditional attr. St Dallan c.550

humble access

Detail from the Holy Blood Altar

St. Jakobs Church, Rothenburg

Tilman Riemenschneider (c.1460-1531)

We do not presume to come to this thy Table,
O merciful Lord,

trusting in our own righteousness,

but in thy manifold and great mercies.

We are not worthy so much as
to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.

But thou art the same Lord,
whose property is always to have mercy:

Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,

so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ,
and to drink his blood,

that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,

and our souls washed through his most precious blood,

and that we may evermore dwell in him,
and he in us.
Amen.

Prayer of Humble Access

1662 version

sub tuum praesidium

Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

Enguerrand Quarton

Musée du Louvre

We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God;
despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen

Traditional

thy sea is so great

O God, thy sea is so great

and my boat is so small.

"This Old Breton prayer was given to new submarine captains by Admiral Hyman Rickover who gave this brass plaque to the President. President Kennedy favored this quote and used it in his remarks at the dedication of the East Coast Memorial to the Missing at Sea, May 23, 1963. He kept the plaque on his desk in the Oval Office."

from the website of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum